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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26371639">autumn crocus</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/allicya/pseuds/allicya'>allicya</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EXO (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baekhyun is missing, Illustrator Do Kyungsoo, Korean Birth Flowers, Writer Park Chanyeol, baekchen are Chanyeol's characters, baekchen but from Chanyeol POV, tagging this fic is hard, xinghun at other world, xinghun im sorry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:26:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,091</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26371639</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/allicya/pseuds/allicya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Chanyeol, a successful author, was surprised to see a stranger sitting on the edge of his bed. He hadn't even woken up completely yet when the stranger yelled at him.</p><p>“Baekhyun is missing! And you left us for 2 weeks! You had the audacity to leave on that paragraph where Baekhyun wanted to search for my birth flower, that freaking autumn crocus, and now Baekhyun is really obsessed to find that flower for 2 weeks already!” </p><p>Wait, Chanyeol didn't understand a word from this stranger. And the most shocking thing was that the stranger's appearances matched crazily with the characteristics of his character, Kim Jongdae.</p><p>A fictional character, which was supposed to live in a story, in a book. Not on the edge of his bed, yelling at him loudly.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongdae | Chen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>76</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Shall we Chen? Fictional Fest First Round</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>autumn crocus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I’m neither a gardener nor a florist, I solely did my research using Google. Oh, this is a self-prompt. The story behind this fic? Forbid's baekchen (Forbid is my another fic) came to my dream! They looked so happy, they invited me to eat in a restaurant, but whenever they talked, all that I heard were white noises except for one sentence, and this one sentence made me thing too deep into the fic world, into the mindset of a writer and author and novelist, and I wrote this fic as a reply to my Forbid's baekchen. I don't remember who said the sentence (and I'm sad that I can't remember), but here's the sentence;</p><p>"We're happy there, thank you."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chanyeol stared at his laptop, suddenly felt foreign with the feeling. He just returned from his 2 weeks’ vacation, where he spent all of his time with his family. His sister just got married, and Chanyeol did everything to make sure the wedding ceremony went well, including having the maximum fun with his family.</p><p>“I haven’t write a thing in 2 weeks,” he sighed heavily, realized that he already reread his draft for more than 3 times already.</p><p>Kyungsoo, who sat across Chanyeol, just nodded silently. It was normal for people like them to lose inspiration at random times, and to make things worse, Chanyeol hadn’t touch his laptop at all during his vacation.</p><p>The coffee shop was silent as usual that night, the chilly autumn night was extremely pleasant, as they sat outside under a parasol belonged to the coffee shop.</p><p>“Do you remember how you wanted to connect the plot lines before? Did you jot it down anywhere?” Kyungsoo asked.</p><p>“That’s the problem. I can’t remember how I want to continue the story,” Chanyeol sighed in frustration this time.</p><p>He was an established author, people knew his name, for his books were always on the bestselling shelf. Writing was like breathing for him, and now that he couldn’t write anything, he felt suffocated and helpless.</p><p>This was supposed to be his fifth novel. He usually outlined the plots generally in his mind, but somehow he couldn’t connect them this time.</p><p>It was about a story of two rivalling singers, he was already entering the climax part, but somehow all his brain cells chose to stay in vacation mode.</p><p>They sat in silence for a while, Chanyeol was thinking hard to find some way to gain back his inspirations.</p><p>“Do you think you can draw the cover first, Kyungsoo? Maybe I’ll find some ideas from your drawings,” Chanyeol suggested.</p><p>If Chanyeol was the writer, Kyungsoo was the artist. He drew the illustrations for Chanyeol’s books, for Chanyeol always admired the way Kyungsoo could draw his characters exactly like how he wanted.</p><p>Kyungsoo eyed him for a while, before he finally grabbed his graphic pen. “I only read your draft in a glance so I still can’t grasp their visuals in my mind. Run through the important things with me.”</p><p>Chanyeol took a deep breath, scrolling over his draft extremely fast, tried to find the crucial descriptions to give to Kyungsoo.</p><p>“Enemies to best friends’ trope. Rock stars. Names are Kim Jongdae and Byun Baekhyun. I imagined them both to have the same height with you,” Chanyeol started.</p><p>“Okay. Glitz and glamour,” Kyungsoo roughly drew microphones on his tablet. “Important features of their physicals?”</p><p>“I imagine Jongdae to look soft, despite being a rock star. Curled up lips and soft blonde curls? He’s cute like that. Smiles like the sun, pretty loud for someone with such a lean body. Oh! Always whining to the people around him,” Chanyeol grinned while imagining his own character. “And Baekhyun is the broader one, red haired in a mullet, looks intimidating but actually quite childish, and he matches Jongdae’s energy for constant stupid arguments extremely well. Talkative and friendly, able to adept well even with strangers. Doesn’t mind to greet people first, despite his rock star status. Both wearing earrings and looking fine as hell. Deep down, both are kind people who are just too lonely in the glamorous world.”</p><p>“Interesting descriptions,” Kyungsoo commented, as he tried to give faces to these characters. “Why are you choosing friendship as the theme this time?”</p><p>Chanyeol smiled softly, truly glad with how subtle Kyungsoo was trying to make him remember the purpose of the story, the reason why he wrote so late at night for months.</p><p>“I’m trying to branch outside of the action genre. So I tried to write something with depth, and friendship is always the deepest theme alongside romance.”</p><p>It was Chanyeol’s first attempt to write something without action, he himself was genuinely excited to finish and publish this new novel.</p><p>“The latest chapter that I got stuck in is when Baekhyun wanted to gift Jongdae his birth flower, but since that flower only bloom starting from September, I somehow stumble on this plot. The setting is currently summer in the story, so I don’t know how to make things logical with the birth flower in the storyline,” Chanyeol sighed.</p><p>“It’s fiction. You can state the flower to bloom all year round,” Kyungsoo suggested.</p><p>Chanyeol did consider the idea, but somehow he didn’t like to bend facts just to fit things in his novels. He was a logical man through and through.</p><p>“You know how I’m not that prone to write something that contradict with our reality. I want the world to be as close as our own world.”</p><p>“Take it as a challenge. Today you probably doesn’t like to write nonsensical things, but later who knows? Maybe one day you’ll write fantasy themes. Just because our lives are plain and normal, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t spice and sprinkle things too in our works.”</p><p>Kyungsoo always gave a valid point, and Chanyeol was thankful to have Kyungsoo by his side, to challenge the way he viewed the life.</p><p>The only problem was that Chanyeol’s life was indeed plain and normal.</p><p>“Fantasy?” Chanyeol scoffed. “One day, maybe. If something weird happen to me, maybe then I’ll try to think outside of my logical box.”</p><p>He closed his laptop with a heavy sigh, but Kyungsoo continued to draw ‘Baekhyun’ and ‘Jongdae’ on his iPad. He scooted closer, their physiques were starting to shape from the rough sketches, and Chanyeol gave more inputs about his two characters to Kyungsoo.</p><p>After an hour of their combined brainstorming, together with Kyungsoo’s continuous drawing of the two characters, Kyungsoo finally finished two clean sketches of ‘Baekhyun’and ‘Jongdae’.</p><p>“Wow…they look exactly like what I had in mind…” Chanyeol stated, in complete awe, as he held the iPad firmly with both of his hands.</p><p>Kyungsoo smiled, wasn’t really impressed with his own drawings since there were more details he had to give to these characters. The way Chanyeol thoroughly pictured them, Kyungsoo knew that both characters were more than what he had just drawn.</p><p>“They are cute. I’m imagining them to have extremely nice voices,” Kyungsoo said, tapping his graphic pen lightly on the table.</p><p>Chanyeol only nodded, still amazed with Kyungsoo’s drawings. To finally have his characters drawn to life, according to how he imagined them, always made him emotional.</p><p>The loud sound of shutter door being pulled was enough to gain their attentions, as both of them turned towards the main entrance of the coffee shop.</p><p>The owner looked guiltily at them as he scratched his head, but both Chanyeol and Kyungsoo immediately stood and bowed their bodies guiltily back at the owner. They were always the coffee shop’s last customers, the owner wasn’t a stranger to them, but tonight they were so immense with their discussion, they hadn’t realised that it was already passed the closing time of the coffee shop.</p><p>“Do you want to go to the airport immediately?” Chanyeol asked, as they started to walk towards Chanyeol’s jeep.</p><p>Kyungsoo hummed silently, content with the comfort of the autumn air. He had an early morning flight, wasn’t planning to return back home for fear of dozing off in hthe comfortable bed.</p><p>“Don’t forget to send me your drawings of my characters,” Chanyeol reminded before he forget about it himself.</p><p>Those drawings would bring him inspirations, he hoped.</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>It was already 5 am when Chanyeol finally reached home after sending Kyungsoo to the airport.</p><p>When he checked his phone, he smiled widely at the top notification, where Kyungsoo’s email just arrived to his inbox. He immediately opened the email, tapped at the download button quickly, dropped his body on the queen sized bed and waited for the attachment to load.</p><p>The image finally fully downloaded, and Chanyeol was extremely impressed to see the final image.</p><p>Kyungsoo did add more after Chanyeol dropped him off at the airport. He gave colours and enhanced more details on the outfits of his characters. Kyungsoo gave both of them summer shirts in sexy vibes, of course with the tight black leather pants, the usual symbol for rock stars. The two characters were standing in front of two microphone stands, almost looked like a battle between them, with how fierce their faces were while singing to their hearts’ content towards their microphones.</p><p>“Byun Baekhyun and Kim Jongdae…” Chanyeol whispered silently to himself, blinked at the picture for a few times and his eyes suddenly felt so heavy.</p><p>Slept immediately came to him, as he closed his eyes with the phone’s screen was left on display in his hand.</p><p>Chanyeol had no idea at exactly what time did he wake up, but he was certain that a certain voice was actually the thing that woke him up. His brain was still too fuzzy, decided that it was probably the voice of his neighbour, and immediately looked at the wall clock to know the time.</p><p>“12 pm…? Kyungsoo must’ve already arrived…”</p><p>He wanted to check his phone that somehow was still within his hand for any notifications, but chose to close his eyes for a few more minutes, too lazy to start his day immediately.</p><p>“I said wake up, you dumbass! How many times must I shout for you to finally open up your eyes?!”</p><p>“What?” Chanyeol replied back sleepily.</p><p>
  <em>What? Who? </em>
</p><p>Chanyeol sat up and scrambled closer immediately towards the headboard, panic increased in his body at a record time.</p><p>Someone sat on the edge of his bed, someone that he didn’t know and he didn’t expect any guest at all for the time being.</p><p>“Who are you?” he shouted, eyes and brain were torn between looking for object to defend himself or looking for object to attack the intruder or looking at the intruder who just talked to him—</p><p>Chanyeol stopped moving when he saw the intruder, his throat felt like someone just choked him.</p><p>He never met this person, not in his life. He would remember if they ever met before, certainly, because this person had such a striking similarities with one of his character…</p><p>That he hadn’t publish officially, yet.</p><p>Curled lips, despite the nearly pouting position of the lips. Blonde hair, lean body, dangling earrings on his left ear, flowery motive shirt, and tight black leather pants <em>what the hell</em>, Chanyeol almost couldn’t believe his eyes.</p><p>He was staring at a person that looked like ‘Kim Jongdae’, his character, the main protagonist of his latest story. Also the person? The thing? The character? – the character that made him stumbled into a weird kind of writer’s block due to a stupid birth flower…</p><p>“Baekhyun is missing!”</p><p>The intruder shouted with extreme urgency, looked like he could cry at any minute, and all that Chanyeol could reply him with were a set of frowning eyebrows and a squeaked word.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I said Baekhyun is missing! I can’t find him! Sehun can’t find him! No one can find him!”</p><p>Chanyeol stared at the intruder, tried to calm his breathing and mind, tried to connect whatever this person was trying to convey to him.</p><p>
  <em>Baekhyun is missing? Sehun? Sehun as in Oh Sehun, Baekhyun’s manager in the story? </em>
</p><p>They sat there in silence, Chanyeol continued to stare at the intruder and no word came from his mouth because this was utterly ridiculous. The intruder seemed to lose his patience too with Chanyeol’s silence as seconds passed by, as he climbed on the bed and started to crawl towards Chanyeol.</p><p>“Wait, wait, wait! Don’t come any closer, wait!” Chanyeol shouted in panic, grabbed his blanket to cover himself from this intruder, despite knowing that he was bigger than the intruder.</p><p>The intruder stopped crawling, but kneeling himself close to Chanyeol on the bed, and Chanyeol swore this intruder was so intimidating despite his small build.</p><p>“You…” Chanyeol tried to talk, “Who are you? Why are you here? How did you enter my house?”</p><p>The intruder frowned, Chanyeol couldn’t help but to stare at how the intruder’s eyebrows frown, clearly disappointed with Chanyeol.</p><p>The intruder looked around the room, tried to find something which Chanyeol had no idea what he was trying to look for in the room. Was this person actually a thief?</p><p>Apparently, Chanyeol’s phone that he grabbed so tightly ever since he spotted the intruder was the thing that the intruder was looking for, as he tried to reach out for Chanyeol’s hand. For the phone?</p><p>“What? No! You can’t steal this!” Chanyeol moved his hand quickly by reflex, but the intruder’s startled look caught him off guard.</p><p>“I’m not here to steal anything! I came from there!” he replied, pointed at Chanyeol’s phone. “Baekhyun probably went missing to this world too from that phone, just because you didn’t lock the screen, damn it!”</p><p>Chanyeol looked at his phone for a second, before he realised how absurd it sounded and looked back at the intruder.</p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous! How can you come out from here?” he waved his phone on the intruder’s face, but somehow Chanyeol sounded unsure of himself.</p><p>“I did! I’m Kim Jongdae, your character! You created me, and last night you left your phone’s screen on display and Baekhyun must have been using that opportunity to escape to this world!”</p><p>Chanyeol could feel the air had been blocked from his breathing system, as his mouth opened wide while staring at the intruder.</p><p>“You’re…Kim Jongdae? You’re really Kim Jongdae? But why? Why are you here? Why is Baekhyun missing—” he paused, “Baekhyun as in Byun Baekhyun, right?”</p><p>The intruder—Kim Jongdae huffed angrily at Chanyeol, and Chanyeol really had no idea why was this character of his was getting angry at him. Seriously? His character?</p><p>“You left us for 2 weeks! And you had the audacity to leave on that paragraph where Baekhyun wanted to search for my birth flower, that freaking autumn crocus, and now Baekhyun is really obsessed to find that flower for 2 weeks already!” Jongdae wasn’t angry at Chanyeol, he was incredibly mad at Chanyeol, “and since it’s already autumn in this world, he probably took his only chance to find that flower and went straight here!”</p><p>Chanyeol’s mouth gaped wider, for he couldn’t believe what he just heard. Probably he was still dreaming, probably his frustration took over his brain and now he was imagining weird things just to get over the storyline.</p><p>He looked at his phone, tried to find something logical in his bearings, tried to contact Kyungsoo, but stopped his breathing again when he saw what was on his screen.</p><p>Only two microphone stands with two microphones were left on the image file that Kyungsoo gave him a few hours ago, and none of his characters.</p><p>“Wait—why did this image change?” Chanyeol whispered to himself, his fingers were trembling as he tapped on his phone, tried to redownload the image again—</p><p>
  <strong>An error has occurred. Please try again. </strong>
</p><p>He clicked the file’s icon again and again, but he still received the same error notification box.</p><p>Chanyeol dropped his phone on his blanket, his first instinct was to look at the intruder, tried to find some logic in what was occurring.</p><p>The so called Kim Jongdae just stared angrily at him.</p><p>Chanyeol grabbed his phone again, immediately pressed call on Kyungsoo’s number—</p><p>The line wasn’t connected. Kyungsoo’s phone was probably already out of juice, Chanyeol knew Kyungsoo’s habit of letting his phone died out of battery and only to charge it when he had his free time.</p><p>Jongdae changed his sitting posture, no longer kneeling, and chose to sit cross-legged on the soft mattress, face clearly waiting for Chanyeol’s response towards the situation.</p><p>Chanyeol gulped.</p><p>“Wait…give me time to brain this,” Chanyeol spoke with closed eyes, tried to stop panicking. Jongdae gave him the silence that he needed, and when Chanyeol opened up his eyes, he continued to speak, “You came here to find Baekhyun, who is coming here, just to find the autumn crocus?”</p><p>Instead of answering, Jongdae just grabbed Chanyeol’s arm and pulled them together off the bed.</p><p><em>Damn, this small thing is strong</em>, Chanyeol thought to himself, as he steadied himself, Jongdae’s hand still firm on his arm.</p><p>“Yes, and I don’t want to repeat the same thing over and over again! Let’s go find Baekhyun, I’m so worried about him, I don’t want to waste another second!” Jongdae spoke, worries were all over his face, Chanyeol couldn’t find it him to say no to Jongdae.</p><p>“Where should we find him? We have no way to contact him. I don’t think you guys have a phone...?”</p><p>“Are you seriously a writer? You’re so slow!” Chanyeol almost wanted to fight him when Jongdae continued, “You wrote it yourself that there are autumn crocus’ fields at Nari Park! Of course Baekhyun is going there!”</p><p>Chanyeol blinked for a few seconds, before he remembered that he indeed wrote that in a short sentence. A short sentence, which was inspired by a small brochure that he saw about a currently ongoing flower festival at Nari Park.</p><p>“So, you’re saying Baekhyun is going to Nari Park? To Yangju which is 30 minutes’ drive from here? Impossible! He doesn’t know how to go there, if I’m following your ‘came from another world’ logic here!”</p><p>“Oh, come on! You yourself, wrote that Baekhyun is friendly and charming! It’s going to be super easy for him to convince people to hitchhike him to Nari Park!”</p><p>Chanyeol did write that too. In fact, Baekhyun was friendly to every character in the story, except for Jongdae.</p><p>“But, why don’t we go to the police first? Or check the CCTV?”</p><p>Jongdae looked as if he wanted to eat Chanyeol. “And what? Report someone that doesn’t even exist in this world? Doesn’t even have an ID and probably will make the police officers think we are crazy? Tell them that we want to check the CCTVs and lose more time in finding Baekhyun? No way!”</p><p>There was truth in Jongdae’s words, and Chanyeol sighed in defeat.</p><p>“Fine, let’s go,” Chanyeol finally agreed. He held his phone tightly, afraid that anything else would appear from the device. “We’re going there with my jeep, is that okay with you?”</p><p>“Anything is okay with me, as long as we can find Baekhyun fast,” replied Jongdae, already walked towards the door.</p><p>Chanyeol slept by still wearing the outfits that he wore while going out last night, and the urgency that Jongdae gave him made him felt bad to even take some time just to change his clothes. “Wait for me at the living room, I need to wash my face. 5 minutes.”</p><p>Jongdae nodded, Chanyeol quickly went to the bathroom and had a quick recap of whatever just happened in the past 10 minutes while brushing his teeth.</p><p>Chanyeol found no logic whatsoever no matter how he tried to make sense of the situation, sighed deeply while wiping his face with a towel, took his items and headed out.</p><p>Only to stop on his track when he saw Jongdae, silently observing the numerous books arranged on the shelves.</p><p>There stood someone who was clearly a rock star, even from just the side profile, all charisma and attractiveness in Jongdae’s every single movement screamed someone who was elegant in his every way of life.</p><p>Chanyeol was only a mere writer, and every thing didn’t make any sense.</p><p>To hell with logic, Chanyeol said to himself.</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>And to hell with gastric too, for they had to stop at a restaurant since Chanyeol’s stomach was in pain, just after 5 minutes he started to drive towards Nari Park.</p><p>He hadn’t eaten anything since the late supper with Kyungsoo’s last night, and the late drive to the airport last night was using a lot of energy from him.</p><p>Jongdae was giving him killer stares, but he couldn’t do anything, Chanyeol knew Jongdae would understand, that Jongdae would be pissed too to do things in hunger.</p><p>At this time, he thanked himself that he was the one who created Jongdae, for he knew what Jongdae loved the most, that Jongdae loved noodles the most. He ordered the most expensive noodles in the menu and a bubble tea for Jongdae, the way Jongdae’s face lit up when his foods came really made Chanyeol wanted to jot down his observations of Jongdae.</p><p>He didn’t want to type on his phone, didn’t want to make Jongdae felt like he wasn’t paying attention to Jongdae, so he made mental notes in his brain instead.</p><p>Jongdae, for a start, was unreal.</p><p>He was totally out of place in the humble restaurant, clearly caught everyone’s attention with his extravagant clothes that Kyungsoo drew beautifully which somehow were more rich looking in real life.</p><p>Chanyeol even heard someone at the nearby table asking, if Jongdae was some kind of idol. And Chanyeol felt bad for that, because Jongdae was a rock star in his world, and he clearly shown that he was uncomfortable with the way he kept glancing around.</p><p>“You rarely go out? In your world, I mean,” Chanyeol asked.</p><p>Jongdae slurped a string of noodle silently before he nodded. “I’m a genuine rock star. I don’t go out like this easily, not without my manager. I really have my own albums too, if you’re curious.”</p><p>Chanyeol bit his rice and went over his draft quickly in his head. Jongdae and Baekhyun already had multiple albums in the story, and the competitive selling of their albums was one of the things that made them enemies.</p><p>“You wrote the basic outline of our lives, Chanyeol-ssi—”</p><p>“Chanyeol, please.”</p><p>“Chanyeol,” Jongdae paused, and it sounded heavy, as if Jongdae was testing how it felt to address his creator informally. “And we continue to live once you closed the lid of your laptop. We don’t stop moving around, but we live according to this basic that you gave to us.”</p><p>Chanyeol stopped eating, for that little information was extremely interesting to him.</p><p>“So, you’re truly a rock star, who performs for the people in your world? I don’t create enough characters to make a proper world, so who are you singing to?”</p><p>Jongdae sighed. “The moment you wrote down a town, thousands of people are born on my world, Chanyeol. A building, a neighbourhood, a country. You wrote the words, and the places will exist, together with their functions.”</p><p>Chanyeol flinched. “Wait...I wrote South Korea as the setting of the story, so is South Korea also the name of your country? You really have a huge fan base and all, performed in front of thousands of people?” Jongdae nodded while chewing, and Chanyeol couldn’t stop his awe.</p><p>No wonder Jongdae was oozing with charisma. Jongdae was really living the life of a rock star.</p><p>“You started to write about me, like, for a year already since you first typing the story? I’ve already existed for that long.”</p><p>Chanyeol was gaping wide.</p><p>“Hard to believe, I guess?” Jongdae wiped his mouth with a tissue, already finished his bowl. “We live our lives accordingly, some characters already developing themselves based on what you wrote for them, for we can’t just wait for you blindly. Imagine how disappointed we were when you were missing for 2 weeks, to only return but typing, deleting, typing and deleting everything again? Baekhyun is so mad at you for hanging the story on autumn crocus too.”</p><p>“I—I’m sorry, I have no idea that I have such strong effects on you guys.”</p><p>“Just think of it as us becoming actors to act your story, when behind your back, we already have our own lives too. I’m content with what I have in my life, I’m just mad because you already put the idea of the autumn crocus on Baekhyun’s mind.”</p><p>“I really didn’t mean to...I too, feel like it’s an obstacle to the plot lines now,” Chanyeol scratched his head, every second passed was another second of him battling himself, that everything was indeed real. That Jongdae was really in front of him.</p><p>“Are you done? Let’s move, I don’t want something bad to happen to Baekhyun.”</p><p>Chanyeol nodded. His stomach felt so much better now, and Jongdae was becoming restless as the seconds went by.</p><p>“I hope the park isn’t too crowded today. It’ll be hard to find him in the crowd,” said Chanyeol.</p><p>Jongdae’s face instantly changed to worry. “Is the park usually crowded? The crowds are another thing, is the park huge?”</p><p>“I’m not sure, I haven’t been to the park myself,” Chanyeol said guiltily.</p><p>Jongdae immediately stride towards the door, his urgency was clear, and Chanyeol followed him close.</p><p>It struck Chanyeol as weird, when he saw Jongdae with all frowns and worries whenever he talked about Baekhyun.</p><p>They were supposed to be enemies in the story.</p><p>What were they, outside of the story?</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>The radio gave them the background sound, as they both were in heavy thoughts, when they started to head towards Yangju again.</p><p>The fact that today was Saturday was making Chanyeol worried too, knowing that the crowds would love to go to any kind of park on weekends.</p><p>A soft rock song was played on the radio while they were waiting for the green light, and Jongdae looked over the radio console and increased the volume of the radio, which caught Chanyeol’s attention too.</p><p>“Who’s the singer?” asked Jongdae with extreme interest.</p><p>“This? Chen. He’s one of the top singers in the country.”</p><p>“I can sense it through his voice. Not every singer can convey such feelings in a recorded song, he must be extremely talented and his singing skills are so good.”</p><p>Chanyeol looked at Jongdae from the corner of his eyes, and noticed the pure awe in Jongdae’s face as he listened more to the song.</p><p>He didn’t tell Jongdae that Jongdae himself was inspired by Chen.</p><p>“I have more of his songs in my phone. If you want to listen to them, I can connect my phone to the radio and play his whole discography,” Jongdae immediately nodded and Chanyeol tapped his phone for a few seconds to find Chen’s albums.  </p><p>The sound of drums replaced the song from the radio, and Jongdae swayed his head left to right rhythmically, following the beat.</p><p>“Such a nice voice. He can make it big in my world. Do you mind if we listen to his songs for the whole ride?”</p><p>“No, I don’t mind, go ahead. You can sing along too, I really want to listen to your singing.”</p><p>Jongdae just smiled.</p><p>But soon, his smile faded, when they arrived to Nari Park. The park was extremely crowded, Chanyeol even had a hard time to find a parking.</p><p>“Stay close with me and don’t wander alone. You don’t have a phone with you, and I can’t afford to lose both of my main characters in my own world,” Chanyeol warned him, once they headed towards the ticket booth.</p><p>Jongdae paid no attention to that, his eyes started to wander left and right but still walking close beside Chanyeol.</p><p>The park was huge, and crowded too.</p><p>“This is like finding a needle in haystack!” Chanyeol sighed. “Let’s ask the worker instead. Can you describe Baekhyun’s last appearance properly?”</p><p>Jongdae nodded quickly, and instead of queuing with the rest of the waiting crowds, Chanyeol walked straight towards the ticketing officer.</p><p>“Excuse me, sir. Can we ask you something?” Chanyeol asked politely, and the officer nodded.</p><p>Chanyeol eyed at Jongdae, and Jongdae took the clue. “Have you seen someone with red hair, styled in a mullet? He’s wearing summer shirt and leather pants. It’s hard to miss him.”</p><p>That was exactly how Kyungsoo drew Baekhyun, and Chanyeol gulped silently.</p><p>The worker thought for a second, before he shook his head. “We’ve just changed our shift an hour ago, and I don’t see anyone like that. Maybe you need to ask the ones from the previous shift.” Both Chanyeol and Jongdae probably looked so disheartened, the officer thought of something for them. “I think Jongin hasn’t left yet, he collected the tickets on the previous shift. Let me call him for you and you guys can ask him instead.”</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>The Jongin guy didn’t pick up his phone, but another worker told them that Jongin was still eating at the cafeteria.</p><p>Chanyeol and Jongdae quickly queued and paid for the tickets, immediately walked towards the cafeteria to find the Jongin guy.</p><p>“Jongin is there,” one of the worker pointed to a person who was sitting on a bench, after Chanyeol asked them which one was Jongin.</p><p>“Thank you,” Chanyeol muttered and they walked towards the Jongin guy. “Jongin-ssi?”</p><p>“Yes?” the man who replied was handsome, currently savouring a lavender ice cream leisurely.</p><p>“They said you worked on the previous shift,” Jongin nodded to that, “Do you, perhaps, saw someone wearing an outfit just like him?” He pointed at Jongdae, Jongin raised an eyebrow. “Red hair in a mullet, outfits that look like only a rock star would wear, and extremely hard to be missed?”</p><p>“Oh! That small guy! Yeah, I know that guy! He created such a ruckus, Minseok hyung nearly lost it just to handle that guy!” There was an extreme glee in Jongin’s eyes, and Chanyeol was suddenly too curious.</p><p>“What did he do?”</p><p>“Where is he now?”</p><p>Chanyeol and Jongdae both asked Jongin at the same time, Jongin’s gleeful expression turned to a smile. “He did so many things, to top it off, he did something that made Minseok hyung mad and he’s with Minseok hyung, the last time I saw him.”</p><p>“Where are they now?” Chanyeol and Jongdae asked at the same time, and Jongin smiled again.</p><p>“You guys are his friends? I can bring you guys to Minseok hyung,” Jongin quickly stood. “Wait here, I’ll bring a buggy. The autumn crocus’ fields are quite far from here.”</p><p>The autumn crocus.</p><p>Chanyeol stood still, as his mind running wild.</p><p>Jongdae was right all along, Baekhyun really went to find the autumn crocus.</p><p>His character Baekhyun, jumped between two worlds, just to find autumn crocus for Jongdae, just like how he wrote in the draft.</p><p>But why?</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>They waited for Jongin at the bench in silence for the first few minutes.</p><p>Jongdae already sighed multiple times, complained repetitively that Baekhyun was never really far from trouble.</p><p>Chanyeol somehow felt like a parent, when he asked Jongdae the question that had been bugging his mind since they met.</p><p>“You and Baekhyun, you guys are close?”</p><p>Jongdae sighed again.</p><p>“Close,” he paused, clearly calculating what he wanted to say. “Our lives revolve around each other. He’s my rival, and we made that effort to be friends, well, according to you at least. And yes, we’re close now. So close, that I knew he’s going here when I can’t find him anywhere else in our world.”</p><p>And now Chanyeol felt like a parent who didn’t know what happened to his children.</p><p>“About that, how did you know Baekhyun is missing? And you made it sounds like you knew first, before Sehun. You even know his recent clothes.”</p><p>Jongdae’s face was solemn. “Baekhyun was with me last night. I got panicked when I saw he’s missing this early morning.”</p><p>“Should I even ask how do you guys jump to this world?”</p><p>“You’re not going to believe it,” Jongdae smiled. “The big mirror in my bedroom, its acting weird. It doesn’t reflect. It’s humming lowly and showing an extremely white vision instead. My first instinct is to just walk through it.”</p><p>“From that mirror, you walked through it and appeared in my bedroom through my phone...?”</p><p>“Yeah. Sounds silly, but weird things always happen in our world. I don’t know about yours.”</p><p>“There are reports of UFO and such, but...”</p><p>But Chanyeol had no interest in such things; mystic and unexplained mysteries. Not until now, when such things actually happened to himself.</p><p>“I’ll leave with Baekhyun right after I found him. Who knows how long your phone will connect to the mirror. We— I have my own life too, there.”</p><p>“You think I can write in peace knowing that you’re here in my world, and not in my story?” Chanyeol scoffed.</p><p>Jongdae curled his lips again, knowing that Chanyeol wasn’t intent on anything bad with his words.</p><p>The sound of a buggy coming close made both of them turned their heads towards the sound.</p><p>“Hop on! I’ll drive you guys!” Jongin said cheerfully.</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>The park was extremely beautiful, now that they took the time to see it properly.</p><p>And the autumn crocus’ fields are huge, a wild expanse of lilac flowers surrounded by green leaves for a few hundreds of metre.</p><p>With proper fences along the fields.</p><p>“You see,” Jongin started, once he took a turn on one of the corners. “Autumn crocus is poisonous. You have to use gloves to touch them, but this friend of yours,” Jongin chuckled for a second, “he jumped through the fences, plucked a few stems with bare hands, and really threw himself in trouble when Minseok hyung saw him.”</p><p>Jongdae’s face quickly turned to panic. “Is Baekhyun okay?”</p><p>“Is that his name?” Jongin asked back, eyes on a large greenhouse situated in the middle of the fields. “Minseok hyung tended to him immediately, but surprisingly, your friend is okay. Minseok hyung said he doesn’t look pale or sick, that he just laughed at all of Minseok hyung’s warning.”</p><p>Chanyeol almost replied that Baekhyun probably didn’t follow the law of toxicity in this world, but he managed to hold it in himself, chose to pat Jongdae’s shoulder instead. “He’s fine, we found him.”</p><p>Jongin stopped the buggy right in front of the greenhouse, and gestured to both Chanyeol and Jongdae to enter the greenhouse.</p><p>They climbed down the buggy, Jongdae almost ran towards the entrance of the greenhouse…</p><p>Just to feel disappointed to see no sight of Baekhyun. Only a worker and a few tourists could be seen in the greenhouse, with the worker silently kneeling and tending one of the autumn crocus’ pots.</p><p>“Junmyeon hyung!” Jongin shouted. “Where’s Minseok hyung?”</p><p>The worker turned his head towards them for a second, before looking back at the pots, “He just went to the stocks’ fields with the guy earlier.”</p><p>“Ah! Too bad!” Jongin whined. “These people are that guy’s friends! They’re searching for him!”</p><p>The worker straightened his back to look at them properly. “Your friend is a menace. He’s so determined to take a few flowers when we said it clearly that it’s against the park’s rules! Minseok hyung pitied him because he looks so disheartened so we agreed to give him a few. Then he said he wanted to create a bouquet with autumn crocus? What kind of logic is that? Small flowers can’t be decorated into bouquets easily!”</p><p>Chanyeol went speechless, his mind couldn’t process it. Baekhyun wanted to create an autumn crocus’ bouquet?</p><p>“I’m so sorry, Junmyeon-ssi,” Jongdae bowed down his head guiltily, “Baekhyun is weird like that.”</p><p>Junmyeon sighed heavily. “That guy said something about wanted to gift it to someone so dear to him, so Minseok hyung told him that he can decorate the autumn crocus in terrarium instead. Half way decorating he said it looks too bland! After Minseok hyung and me took great care to cut the stems and pick the most beautiful autumn crocuses for him? The audacity!”</p><p>Jongin laughed heartily when both Chanyeol and Jongdae hung their heads in shame. “He’s so funny! So that’s why they went to the stocks’ field? To add more flowers to the terrarium?”</p><p>“What flowers? Stocks and autumn crocus are both lilac coloured flowers. But he insists on adding stocks too! Thankfully the stocks are in full bloom this week!” Junmyeon whined, but somehow from his tone, they knew the man wasn’t really as furious as he sounded.</p><p>“Why did he insist to add stocks too…?” Chanyeol asked, totally in wonder.</p><p>Jongdae’s ears were a little bit red when he answered the question.</p><p>“Because his birth flower is stock.”</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>Jongin insisted that they waited for Minseok and Baekhyun to return back to the greenhouse instead of searching for them at the stocks’ field. Minseok wasn’t the type to bring his phone around too, so they basically had to wait at the greenhouse.</p><p>“They are usually too many people at the stocks field. Just stay here, you guys can sit at the patio outside, take some fresh air. Don’t want you guys to get a hay fever,” Jongin said to them, before he went somewhere else to help Junmyeon with the tasks in the greenhouse.</p><p>Chanyeol and Jongdae both nodded, exited the greenhouse and they finally, finally could breathe better, knowing that Baekhyun was indeed safe, somewhere in the park.</p><p>“All of this just because of the damn autumn crocus,” Jongdae said, crouching near one of the autumn crocus’ beds along the walkways. He was smiling despite his tone, and Chanyeol didn’t miss that.</p><p>“Hey, don’t touch that,” Chanyeol warned. “Baekhyun is probably just lucky. I don’t want to send you to the hospital.”</p><p>“If Baekhyun is okay then most probably I’ll be fine too,” Jongdae replied, tenderly touched the flower. “He’s probably decorating the terrarium right now.”</p><p>There were so many things Chanyeol imagined his characters would do in the story, but never would he imagine them to decorate flowers, let alone a poisonous flower.</p><p>“You are…fond of Baekhyun,” Chanyeol commented. “And I’m sure, Baekhyun is fond of you too, with this whole decorating flowers thing.”</p><p>“Baekhyun and I are famous celebrities. We received a lot of bouquets to the point that it doesn’t feel like something new. But this…Baekhyun is going to make it himself, and I’m proud of him, for that.”</p><p>Jongdae was super fond of Baekhyun, and Chanyeol didn’t know what to do about that. This was certainly wasn’t how he imagined his characters to behave around each other.</p><p>“You…look conflicted,” Jongdae laughed at Chanyeol.</p><p>Jongdae laughed at Chanyeol, for the first time ever, and Chanyeol was stunned.</p><p>“I—” Chanyeol stuttered, “I’m just confused. It seems like you guys no longer have bad feelings with each other. Baekhyun is really jumping worlds, just to find you your birth flower. I feel like I’m missing <em>something</em> important here.”</p><p>“I told you before,” Jongdae stood again, “That we continue our lives as usual. When you left us, we move on with our lives. We are just actors for your story now.”</p><p>“You…what should you do now? If you’re not here today, I mean.”</p><p>“Vocal training and some recording. You wrote that I’m preparing for a new album. Well, I’m preparing for an album right now.”</p><p>Chanyeol thought for a while, tried to link it to his draft. “That means Baekhyun is indeed preparing for his tour now?”</p><p>“Yeah, and he is kind of getting bored with the practices, hence he got some free time learning about flowers,” Jongdae smiled again. “Currently, he’s actually pretty invested with flowers. Too bad autumn crocus doesn’t bloom now in our world. If not, we’re not going to trouble you like this.”</p><p>Chanyeol felt weird, for he knew it was his fault too for leaving the story in hiatus for 2 weeks, at where the autumn crocus was becoming an issue. “You don’t have to apologize. In fact, I’m feeling a lot right now, seeing my character in front of my own eyes. I haven’t met Baekhyun yet, but I’m sure I’m going to be overwhelmed again, just like how I met you this morning. In fact, I’m still overwhelmed.”</p><p>“You’ll be fine meeting Baekhyun,” Jongdae smiled. “Chanyeol, no matter what you did that you thought was wrong, a constant plot changing or a simple writer block, I just want you to know that I’m extremely grateful to you. If you didn’t create me in the first place, I would never knew life. To hell with egg first or chicken first, what’s important is the life itself. And you gave life to me, and for that I’ll be forever thankful to you.”</p><p>Chanyeol was speechless by Jongdae’s words, silence engulfed them for a moment before he could reply.</p><p>“I’ve…never really think it that way, you know. That I’m actually giving a life to my character, for I always thought that it’s only the story alone that I’ve been giving birth to. I had no idea that the characters also live on,” he smiled to himself. “I guess, now that you’re here in front of me, I guess now I knew, my characters are living well too.”</p><p>“You’re always writing new stories and new characters, you forget that for some of your readers, the characters actually stay for a long time with them.”</p><p>Chanyeol nodded, truly thankful that this miracle somehow happened to him, that somehow his character came to meet him, although by accident.</p><p>“You guys! Minseok hyung is back!” Jongin’s loud scream startled them, and they immediately turned towards the greenhouse.</p><p>The other guy who walked steadily towards the greenhouse looked at both Chanyeol and Jongdae, before he raised his eyebrows at Jongin.</p><p>“They’re that red haired guy’s friends! They came for him!” Jongin replied cheerfully.</p><p>Minseok was clearly sighing, before he started to walk towards the duo.</p><p>“Your friend is still lagging behind wandering around using the buggy, I don’t know what else he wants to add to the terrarium,” Minseok said, pulling out the gloves that he was wearing. “He’s so active, I already lost a week worth of energy keeping up with him.”</p><p>“I’m truly sorry for that Minseok-ssi,” Jongdae said his earnest apology, which Minseok just waved his hand on those words. “He’s on his way back here?”</p><p>“Yeah, he forced me to teach him using the buggy. He’s a fast learner, and since he promised not to create more troubles, I let him use the buggy.”</p><p>Chanyeol was in awe. Baekhyun really lived up all the characteristics that Chanyeol gave to him; easily befriended someone new, to the point that he could make a new friend who was willing enough to teach him how to drive a buggy.</p><p>Chanyeol himself hadn’t drive a buggy.</p><p>“Do you guys happened to know his lover? He’s freaking whipped to this person, judging by how he decorated the terrarium,” Minseok asked, as he sat on the walkway. “I rarely made a terrarium using autumn crocus, and he made it with extreme care, it’s so pretty.”</p><p>Jongdae’s face was extremely red, and he was left with no words, so Chanyeol replied for him. “He actually made that for a friend. A dear friend of him!”</p><p>Minseok made a face.</p><p>“Friend? I don’t think it’s a friend. Must be someone special. Do you know your friend have no money with him?” Minseok asked with a serious face. “He hitchhiked someone from some place that he doesn’t even know the name, and did some impromptu singing at the parking lot just to get some money? The management nearly turn him away before Jongin paid for his ticket because Jongin said his voice is so good.”</p><p>Both Chanyeol and Jongdae were so stunned, Baekhyun really did all that alone?</p><p>“Oh dear, he did a lot more things, I’m nearly convinced he’s not normal,” someone must said their thoughts out loud when Minseok continued talking. “Only a human sickeningly in love is willing to do whatever he just did in the span of few hours. Jumping through the fences and plucked the flowers right in front of my eyes? I nearly had a heart attack!”</p><p>Junmyeon approached them to give Minseok a water bottle, with Jongin giggled happily, trailing behind him. “Speaking of the devil! That’s the small devil!”</p><p>They all looked at the buggy which was slowly approaching them, and there was no way people could miss the red hair and the shocked look on the driver’s face.</p><p>Chanyeol’s first impression of Baekhyun was a cute dog. A puppy probably.</p><p>Jongdae immediately ran towards the buggy, which Baekhyun already parked somehow skilfully beside the other buggy that Jongin brought earlier.</p><p>“Jongdae, Jongdae! You’re here!” Baekhyun shouted cheerfully, as he ran and met Jongdae halfway.</p><p>Chanyeol could only look at his characters, slowly trying to absorb the new knowledge about Baekhyun and the dynamics between his main characters when suddenly his eyes nearly jumped out from their sockets.</p><p>Baekhyun was kissing Jongdae. On the mouth. With a very big smile, holy shit, Chanyeol just wanted to curse out loud.</p><p>To say the other spectators were stunned was definitely an understatement. Even Jongdae himself turned rigid, that Baekhyun had to pull back to look at Jongdae.</p><p>“What happened, Jongdae? Why are you going stiff?” Baekhyun asked worriedly, thoroughly scanned Jongdae’s face. His arms immediately looped around Jongdae’s waist protectively. “Something’s wrong?”</p><p>Jongdae was blushing, he couldn’t look at Baekhyun for seconds, just staring at the expanse of skin on Baekhyun’s bare chest because Baekhyun didn’t bother to button the few top buttons of that summer shirt.</p><p>“I came with the writer…” Jongdae finally looked up to meet Baekhyun’s eyes. “And I haven’t tell the writer that we are a couple…”</p><p>Baekhyun gaped silently, as he slowly turned his head towards the other four men who were watching them with extreme interest, different faces in different person.</p><p>When Baekhyun finally found Chanyeol’s stare, he could only hugged Jongdae tighter and bumped his forehead softly on Jongdae’s.</p><p>“Uh…hi? I’m Jongdae’s boyfriend, Baekhyun…” he smiled sheepishly.</p><p>Minseok and Junmyeon just smiled at the couple, while Jongin grinned happily, for they finally understood for whom was Baekhyun’s whole sacrifices and weird acts ever since he came to the park.</p><p>But, Chanyeol?</p><p>Chanyeol fainted on the walkway.</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>“I can accept if he wants to stop writing or add another people as our romantic interests, but what if he delete the whole story, Baekhyun? Doesn’t that mean we’ll vanish? And I’m going to forget you? I can’t accept that!”</p><p>The noise, or what was probably an urgent voice, woke Chanyeol up from whatever weird blackout that he just experienced.</p><p>He blinked for a few times, looked slowly from left to right, tried to gain his whole senses. He was lying on something soft, and his surroundings smelled so earthy.</p><p>“Hey Jongdae, he woke up,” another unfamiliar voice said, and an unfamiliar face came right above Chanyeol’s face. “Hey, writer. Are you okay? The medics checked on you and said you are in extreme shock. Do you want to go to the hospital?”</p><p>Chanyeol blinked again, his brain was thinking of the word hospital critically, before he observed the whole room to somehow understand what was truly happening.</p><p>He was in an unfamiliar room, with two unfamiliar faces. They were worried faces, and the one closest to him even had a frown on his forehead. He looked like a cute dog, a puppy, and the face suddenly seemed familiar to him.</p><p>“You’re in the workers’ rest area. If you want to, we can go to the hospital,” the man said again, and Chanyeol finally coughed to find his voice back.</p><p>“I’m…okay, really. Just, confused.”</p><p>He was indeed confused. He looked at the other guy, the frowning eyebrows were such a strong feature, and the man opened up his mouth.</p><p>“Chanyeol, are you really okay?”</p><p>The moment the man spoke his name, his recent memories finally came to him and hit him like a truck.</p><p>“You are Jongdae,” he whispered, as he looked at Jongdae before he looked ahead towards the face close to him, “and you are…Baekhyun?”</p><p>“Yeah…hello Chanyeol-ssi,” Baekhyun scratched his head guiltily, “Sorry for the weird first meeting. That was such a strong impression, I guess.”</p><p>“I…No,” Chanyeol replied, slowly sat himself on the thin mattress. “I don’t mean to black out, I’m so sorry.”</p><p>He looked at the couple, who sat humbly on the floor, their eyes were extremely nervous, as if Chanyeol would scold them anytime now.</p><p>“I’m sorry for not telling you that we’re more than friends. I don’t want to risk you not liking us after that,” Jongdae spoke, and Chanyeol hated that he made his own character felt bad.</p><p>“No, please, don’t be sorry. I’m okay with that, I have no problem with you guys as boyfriends,” Kyungsoo crossed his mind, but that wasn’t the main problem now, “I’m just shocked. I’m trying so hard to think of something that’ll make you guys turn into best friends in the story, but who knows that you guys already advanced more than that.”</p><p>He gave both of them his sincerest smile, his approving smile, and Baekhyun immediately engulfed him in a big hug, to Chanyeol’s own surprise.</p><p>“Mister Writer, I’m so thankful to you! We thought you’ll delete the whole story out of spite!” Baekhyun shouted happily, arms almost crushing Chanyeol’s whole frame.</p><p>“I’m not going to delete you guys!” Chanyeol grinned towards Jongdae and patted Baekhyun’s head happily. Jongdae also smiled back to him, the relief was evident on his face.</p><p>“And please, just call me Chanyeol.”</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>After he thanked every worker of the park that he could find on their way back to his jeep and paid some huge amount to the management for the damages done by Baekhyun and the cost for the terrarium that Baekhyun had created, Chanyeol treated Jongdae and Baekhyun to a dinner back at Seoul.</p><p>Minseok, Junmyeon and Jongin kept asking him multiple times if he was truly okay, before they personally gave Chanyeol the green light to leave the park, and he promised them that he would come to Nari Park again to visit them.</p><p>The park was extremely inspiring, and if not for the pressing matters in hand, Chanyeol would love to sit and write his draft at the park.</p><p>Jongdae and Baekhyun decided to leave as soon as they could, before the mirror-phone portal closed up.</p><p>They agreed for the dinner, and here he was, sitting together with the couple in a busy BBQ place, as if all of them were close friends.</p><p>Baekhyun was truly a cheerful person, and he treated Chanyeol like his own best friend which made Chanyeol quick to warm up with Baekhyun.</p><p>Jongdae, who was no longer worried about his previously missing boyfriend, was indeed a friendly person, both of them were so whiny, added with Chanyeol who was also loud in nature, and their table was certainly one of the loudest tables in the restaurant.</p><p>They talked about a lot of things, although it was clear that Chanyeol steered away from the question of how did the couple ended up together.</p><p>“That story belongs to you guys, and not mine,” Chanyeol stopped Baekhyun, when Baekhyun wanted to tell him about his dates with Jongdae. “I feel like overstepping something so private, and I don’t deserve that, not when I haven’t finish my own story. One day, you can tell me. After I finally catch up with you guys by finishing my story.”</p><p>Baekhyun smiled at him and nodded, before he continued to tell stories about how he managed to hitchhike an MPV and asked for help from the driver to drive him to Nari Park instead, and their table was never silent for more than a few seconds.</p><p>A medium sized terrarium was also placed on the table, a pretty glass terrarium, filled with lilac flowers of both autumn crocus and stocks, surrounded with colourful lithops and fresh green leaves.</p><p>The flowers were decorated with extreme care, and true to what Minseok said, anyone who saw Baekhyun’s work would know, it was for someone that he loved so much.</p><p>Because the flowers were arranged together to form a heart shape, within a heart shaped glass terrarium.</p><p>There were a few moments where Chanyeol just stared at his characters; his characters who were talking, laughing and yelling right in front of him, honestly astonished to see them so charismatic and so humane.</p><p>And definitely in love. Those stares, laced together with nonstop laughter and smile, were filled with love.</p><p>Jongdae and Baekhyun were extremely in love with each other.</p><p>Chanyeol smiled.</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure my phone will not crack?”</p><p>Chanyeol asked, totally in doubt with the duo’s plan.</p><p>All of them were squatting in the middle of an empty playground, with Chanyeol’s handphone lying on the grass. The file that Kyungsoo gave to him this morning was on display, and they stared at the almost blank image, only two microphones stand with two microphones could be seen on the screen.</p><p>“The bad thing that can happen is it’ll crack. The good thing that can happen is Baekhyun and I will go back to our world back. The worst thing that’ll happen is that your phone will crack and Baekhyun and I will stuck here in your world,” Jongdae answered while holding his breath.</p><p>“Wow, genius. I don’t remember writing you as a genius,” Jongdae pushed Chanyeol for that and Chanyeol’s butt nearly fell to the grass. “Hey!”</p><p>“Okay, serious guys. It’s now or never. Sehun and Yixing must be sickeningly worried about us. I just ghosted Sehun and Jongdae doesn’t even inform Yixing hyung that he’s following me here,” Baekhyun stood, offering a hand to Jongdae.</p><p>“Okay, let’s do this,” Jongdae slapped both of his thighs, took Baekhyun’s hand and slowly stood, eyes on Chanyeol’s phone.</p><p>Chanyeol was still squatting, tilted his head high to look at the couple.</p><p>“I don’t want to hug you guys again,” said Chanyeol, and a sniffle escaped his nose.</p><p>He already cried his eyes out when Jongdae and Baekhyun announced that they should go back soon. The smaller men hugged him tight for a solid ten minutes before Chanyeol could calm down and think rationally.</p><p>His characters really had their own lives without him, but also thanks to him.</p><p>Baekhyun even surprised him, as he gifted Chanyeol a small terrarium, filled with colourful succulents and littered with small autumn crocus and stocks. He even apologized to Chanyeol for he didn’t know Chanyeol’s birth flower, that this was the only thing he could gift to Chanyeol.</p><p>He cried again while holding the small terrarium, and Baekhyun had to kick his shin to stop him from crying.</p><p>“Continue your writing, and write us well,” Baekhyun smiled at him, and Chanyeol could feel his tears were coming back. “We’ll miss you.”</p><p>Chanyeol swallowed, couldn’t trust himself not to cry, as he stared at the interlaced fingers of his characters, as he looked at Jongdae who just stared back at him.</p><p>“We’re happy, thanks to you,” Jongdae said, his eyes were watery. “I hope you’ll always know that.”</p><p>Chanyeol’s tears dropped again, but he quickly wiped them on his arm.</p><p>“Okay, lovebirds, go! I’m busy! I need to write something after this!” he looked at them for one last time, wide smile on his face despite his harsh tone. He inhaled deeply, eyes so fond when he spoke again. “And please know that I’m extremely thankful to you guys too.”</p><p>The couple smiled happily at him, as they stepped forward on top of Chanyeol’s phone, fingers gripping tightly together, and the other free hands were waving at Chanyeol.</p><p>The phone’s screen suddenly brightened, the light was so blinding that Chanyeol had to shield his arm from the extreme whiteness.</p><p>The world felt like it stopped moving for a few seconds.</p><p>And when he dared to open up his eyes again, he blinked the white blindness away, only to be greeted by the silent night and the dimmed light from his phone.</p><p>He moved his body forward, hand reached up for his phone.</p><p>His phone’s screen was showing an image, the same image that Kyungsoo drew before he boarded his flight.</p><p>But this time Chanyeol was not only impressed by the image, he was also fond of the characters on the image.</p><p>He swore the image changed.</p><p>It changed on the eyes of his characters.</p><p>His characters were both so fond of each other, just like how fond he was to them.</p><p>“What a crazy day…” Chanyeol sighed, as he finally lay down on the grass, eyes staring at the dark autumn skies.</p><p>He just continued to lie there, unmoved, brain still couldn’t process what just happened to him for the whole day.</p><p>His phone vibrated continuously on his palm and Chanyeol glanced at it, not surprised to see Kyungsoo’s name on the screen.</p><p>“Kyungsoo-yah,” he said softly after scrolling the accept button.</p><p>“Shit, Chanyeol. I thought something happened to you,” Kyungsoo’s voice was steady but Chanyeol knew Kyungsoo better than anyone else. Kyungsoo was extremely worried for him. “You didn’t reply to my messages and ignored my calls. What did you do today actually?”</p><p>Chanyeol scoffed lightly, the image of two persons immediately crossed his mind.</p><p>“You’re not going to believe it.”</p><p> </p><p>🌷</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“Do you want to record a song with me?” Baekhyun asked shyly. “I mean, do you want to duet with me, to duet a love song together with me, Jongdae?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Jongdae couldn’t help but to smile brightly at the person standing right in front of him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Of course, Baekhyun, of course. I do.”</em>
</p><p>Those words were on the last page of his recent novel.</p><p>To others, to his readers, it was probably an ambiguous ending.</p><p>But Chanyeol knew better of the meaning of his ending.</p><p>Whenever his fans asked him the true meaning of the ending, the true relationship of his main characters in a fan sign, Chanyeol would just smile at them and gave the same answer.</p><p>“That’s no longer my story to tell.”</p><p>His new novel was another successful bestseller, and the critics were extremely surprised by his new writing style, and how he delicately wrote about human’s relationships instead of pistols and guns.</p><p>But Chanyeol thought that he was just lucky to meet Jongdae and Baekhyun, who were the reason he managed to continue the story with a stronger motivation, who managed to convince him to put the element of fantasy in his writing.</p><p>A little bit, not too much. But fantasy was slowly getting to Chanyeol’s extreme interest now.  </p><p>Sometimes Chanyeol felt that the whole day with Jongdae and Baekhyun was just a dream.</p><p>But the small terrarium sat on his table would always remind him that everything was real. The autumn crocus and stocks might already been removed, but the succulents were still alive and growing well.</p><p>Chanyeol went to Nari Park again a few days after the fated day, specifically to meet Minseok, to ask his help to dry the flowers and put them in a resin.</p><p>“Your little boys are not with you today?” Minseok asked, after he pulled out the autumn crocus and the stocks carefully from the terrarium.</p><p>Chanyeol just shook his head with a small smile.</p><p>Minseok crafted the resin beautifully into a small heart shaped mold, and Chanyeol gifted the completed flower resin to Kyungsoo.</p><p>If there was someone who could keep Chanyeol’s most beloved treasure safely, it must be Kyungsoo.</p><p>After all, Kyungsoo kept Chanyeol’s heart safely with him.</p><p>“What story do you want to write next?” Kyungsoo asked him.</p><p>They sat on a bench, somewhere in the middle of Nari Park.</p><p>It was spring now, the park was vibrant with colours, and Chanyeol already sneezed a few times.</p><p>“I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll take two months rest first or something,” Chanyeol replied, his eyes staring in awe at the line of pink and blue hydrangeas.</p><p>“Maybe you can help plotting a story for me,” Kyungsoo said. “I’m planning to draw a long chaptered manhwa.”</p><p>Chanyeol quickly turned his head towards Kyungsoo. “Seriously?”</p><p>Kyungsoo often told him about his intention to write a proper manhwa, and no longer the short webtoons that he had been doing for the past few years.</p><p>“Yeah, I think it’s time,” Kyungsoo played with a petal of the hydrangea. “Besides, I’ve a few ideas to the story, thanks to you. I just don’t know how to build the plot.”</p><p>“Oh, me? Why? What do you want to draw?”</p><p>“Flowers?” Kyungsoo chuckled softly. “Definitely flowers. Male florists? Sexy and soft at the same time.”</p><p>Chanyeol smiled curiously at Kyungsoo, although he had an idea what was this all about. Kyungsoo wasn’t subtle at all when he kept asking Chanyeol about the relationship of the two workers working at the autumn crocus’ greenhouse. “Proposed title?”</p><p>“Autumn Crocus’ Affair?” Kyungsoo smiled.</p><p>“Scandalous enough. I love that.”</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>fun fact, the genus for stock is <em>Matthiola</em>. Matteo Kim is proud.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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